On Friday after watching the horrendous England Vs Algeria World Cup game we drove down to the US border so that Lou could leave Canada and then re-enter (to renew her work permit). The border is only about 50 minutes away but going on a Friday afternoon meant we had to queue for over an hour to get through. We didn't stay on American soil for long. We literally drove in, went in the US Border office to get a form (to prove that we'd physically left Canada) and then drove back out, known as "flagpolling". I found the Americans to be super paranoid and abrupt with us but I guess they have to be super security conscious so I shouldn't be too critical. We'd have probably gone to an American town had it been earlier in the day and not on a Friday, we'll probably look at doing this soon now we know how easy it is. 

On Saturday the weather was great so we decided to check out Yaletown as we'd never been in that area of Downtown Vancouver before. We made a bad decision of eating and drinking before we went so when we arrived there wasn't actually much for us to do! As nice as it is, it basically seems like a commercialized residential area with plenty of coffee shops, pubs, restaurants and not a great deal else. It was cool to see it nonetheless and definitely a place we've earmarked for a night out in the future. We had to laugh whilst we were there because we found the stereotypes of people in that area to be totally true. It has a reputation for being a yuppy area and there was definitely no short of people that matched that criteria. There's basically 4 main types of people there - regular people, the early 30's ladies walking their fancy dogs (prominent), the mid to late 40's blokes in their sports cars trying to draw attention from said ladies (common), and fitness people (cyclists / rollerbladers). 

After a walk around Yaletown we hopped on an Aquabus (a water taxi) to Granville Island. I managed to get a good spot to take some photos and I enjoyed the cool sea breeze because it was a real scorcher. It only takes about 10 minutes but it's a nice trip and it has a quaint feel to it and it's definitely better than taking a bus, the SkyTrain or driving over there on a weekend. We had a quick look around and then went for a few drinks from the pub part of the Granville Island Brewery (like we've done twice previously!). We stayed for a few hours, had a look around the market and then got on the Aquabus early evening and then caught the SkyTrain home. 

                                               

Click here to download:

an-afternoon-in-yaletown-granville-island-rkIwdxffBoyjfpjzDIAw.zip (42674 KB)

Today we drove to the small town of Squamish for the first time and we also visited Shannon Falls whilst we were there. Squamish is a small town of about 15,000 which is situated at the north end of Howe Sound (a collection of many fjords). It's about 70km North from our home, about half way between Vancouver and Whistler. To get there we had to drive on the sea to sky highway (highway 99) which was recently improved for the Winter Olympics, it seems like it's a completely new road and our GPS couldn't detect some of it. As soon as we got out of Vancouver the traffic was sparse and it was a really cool picturesque drive. We both took turns to drive there and back so that each of us could properly see the great views. It was better than I had imagined, the natural beauty was amazing. I did a google search when I got back home and discovered in 2006 a UK newspaper, The Guardian, listed it as one of the top 5 road trips in the world (click here if you would like to see the article). 

We got to Squamish after about an hour. The town itself is very small and there isn't a great deal to do. It has all the amenities you'd expect but nothing really for tourists (at least from what I could tell), it's the surrounding area most people visit for. It was worth the short stop though, it was cool to see a small Canadian town and it was way different than the big city we've become accustomed to. The weather was very weird all day, it kept changing back and forth from rain to sun and did so about 6 times - it must have been caused by the mountains.  We found everyone in Squamish to be super friendly. I waited outside a shop whilst Lou went to get a coffee and in the space of a few minutes I had two random conversations with people asking me where I was from and offering advice and tips (they must have seen the camera and realized I wasn't from there). 

We left Squamish after about half an hour, had some lunch and then went to Shannon Falls provincial park. The park is actually still within Squamish and it took less then 10 minutes to get there from the town (it's on the way back to Vancouver). Unsurprisingly the park gets it's name from the large waterfall there, it's the 3rd tallest in BC and is over 1000 ft high. We stayed in the park for a while taking photos, some of which are below. In the late afternoon we made our way back home and then our serenity was soon broken as we arrived in Vancouver right in the midst of rush hour. I'm sure it almost took me just as long to do the final 10km as it had to do the other 60km, but it was a small price to pay for a good day trip.    

                                           

During the week we visited The Museum Of Anthropology on the UBC campus. As we were visiting on a Tuesday evening we also got the added bonus of getting in for half price ($7). It was definitely worth the trip, the museum is a great place and it's full of information and fantastic art. I think the photos do it more justice then any words can so I've posted plenty for you to see for yourself.    

                                               

Click here to download:

the-museum-of-anthropology-DfAsEJvjDHppalCEhCDm.zip (42764 KB)